this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2025
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You know, DOGE, fascist president and corporations dictating what people can do, institutions being ruined, laws being ignored. Is there any way out of that or is it over? Is the USA done?

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[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 60 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (26 children)

Well, it depends on how you define the USA. You mean the Republic of the United States of America? Yeah, no, that's dead. It is currently dead. It died when the SCOTUS made the president functionally beyond criminal prosecution, and everyone has just kind of been playing weekend at Bernie's since then (though the Trump administration is dropping the pretense pretty quickly). Don't get me wrong, it's been dying for a long time, but that was the exact moment it was declared dead. No matter what happens, the republic as we knew it is dead and is not coming back. Nobody believes in the constitution anymore; among our leadership there are only either those who are in a hurry to destroy it, or those who are unwilling to defend it. I think a lot of the American populace haven't sincerely believed in the constitution as an effective charter for governance for a while, too. Imo, we're less than a year from the legislature being dissolved in some fashion of another, unless they just hang on like some ceremonial vestigial organ.

What we get to decide now is what comes next. That's what nobody's sure about. Are we going to have a middle-east style theocratic government? Italian fascism? Maybe the military defends the constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic and we re-form the republic? German fascism? Neofeudalism? Peaceful balkanization? Hot balkanization? COULD IT BE?! BY GOD, it's the ghost of Lenin with a steel chair! Or maybe we'll get something entirely new? It's frankly impossible to guess while we're living in it. I think cold balkanization is both the most likely and most optimistic scenario. IN THE MEANWHILE, yeah, you're still going to see all the window trimmings of the USA; the maps will still say USA, we'll at least nominally still have the things that make America America (like the constitution still sitting in its fancy protective case, as though the GOP didn't just wipe Trump's ass with it), it'll all look weirdly normal while they make the republic's corpse do a funny little jig.

[–] notsoshaihulud@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (11 children)

’s the ghost of Lenin with a steel chair! Or maybe we’ll get something entirely new? It’s frankly impossible to guess while we’re living in it. I think cold balkanization is both the most likely and most optimistic scenario. IN THE MEANWHILE, yeah, you’re still going to see all the window trimmings of the USA; the maps will still say USA, we’ll at least nominally still have the things that make America America (like the constitution still sitting in its fancy protective case, as though the GOP didn’t just wipe Trump’s ass with it), it’ll all look weirdly normal while they make the republic’s corpse do a funny little jig.

to date, that 400,000,000 pew-pew stick and freedom rod are proving super effective against tyranny. Civil was is becoming more and more likely though.

[–] DarthKaren@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The problem is who holds them. The majority are the ones that voted for this crap.

[–] Jumpingspiderman@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

One can at most wield two firearms. And one is most effective concentrating on just one. The booger eating mouth-breathing MAGAts may own many more guns than the rest of us. But they can only use one or two at a time. And lots of us ALSO own some firearms. We just usually don't make a fetish of them. Furthermore, owning a bunch of different caliber weapons complicates your supply issues. I have concentrated on 7.62x51/.308, 12 ga, and .45.

[–] DarthKaren@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago

I've been making sure I have each range covered. Short, mid and long. Short and mid are both .45. Long is undetermined yet, but it'll be between .223 and 5.56. All depends on what has a threaded barrel.

[–] notsoshaihulud@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

On civil war, if we were in the slow boil phase I’d agree with you, but the ghouls like stephen miller coming out the woodwork combined with a lot of people suddenly having a lot of free time (I mean fired), things are much more likely to turn heated.

they didn't overthrow biden's "tyranny" either. Instead of the overthrowing tyranny bullshit, guns have a great track record of killing kids and helping depressed men end it all.

[–] DarthKaren@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

True, and this is a very sad statistic. It would be great is we would actually work on mental health in this country. We also need much stronger purchase laws. Required classes. Better registration tracking. Even concealed carry laws are lax in harder states. My state is just fingerprints, background check, and you have your CPL. Renewal is completely online. 5 minutes, $40, about 2 weeks wait, and I have my new license in the mail.

On the tyranny. Usually when the DNC is in office the GOP use it as a chance to cement more votes for the next cycle, and just bitch and moan in general. They generally don't call it tyranny, aside from tRUmp. They generally say that whoever is in office is causing whatever problem the GOP had just caused. They lay the blame, and lay the groundwork, to wreck shit next time while shifting blame from themselves. Eventually people get sick of the economic slump and a new dem gets in office. Que bitch and moan, and the cycle starts again.

However, this cycle is wholly different. We have someone in charge that is actively dismantling everything like a bull in a china shop. This is something that is pretty unprecedented for the US. We have never had interference from another nation. The misinformation campaign usually came from within, and was ham fisted at best. This time, with a different, hostile, nation(s) involved ,that misinformation was turned to 1000%. Social media. Corruption coming to a full head. Then the economic downturn of both a major pandemic and bird flu causing legitimate shortages, only fueled the fire. To be sure, however, this was something coming. All of that, combined with the "perfect" storm of tRUmp, really sped it up.

[–] notsoshaihulud@lemmy.world 4 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

True, and this is a very sad statistic. It would be great is we would actually work on mental health in this country.

It's 99% the guns though. The US has shitty mental health safety net, but not worse than in Eastern Europe, the murder rates (which is driven by gun violence) are much lower there. If you exclude firearm deaths it drops to similar rates to that of Europe. I personally think that increasing fines and punishment for bad gun ownership is the way to go.

They lay the blame, and lay the groundwork, to wreck shit next time while shifting blame from themselves.

Yup. The funniest thing is how important the national debt becomes with a democrat at the helm, but how irrelevant it is with a republican presidency.

All of that, combined with the “perfect” storm of tRUmp, really sped it up.

Agree, trump is a symptom not necessarily the direct cause.these all happened because of citizens united and the influx of infinite money into politics that was bound to tip the balance away from actual citizens towards corporations.

[–] DarthKaren@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I'd definitely be for fines and punishment for bad gun ownership. Any rational person should be. Too many times we see that a shooting happened because someone that shouldn't have had them got them from a family member. If you have someone in your household that shouldn't have firearms, you should remove them from the home. Not just a storage unit or something either. Police should be holding them for you until that person is either out of the house or has completed a treatment program. If you want to go hunting or something, it wouldn't be a big deal to go check your firearm out from the station.

[–] Jumpingspiderman@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

I am a gun owner and there are three places for your firearms, at home, at the range, and while hunting. Restricting uses to those uses would do a world of good in reducing gun crime.

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